News archive

04 Jul 2020, 14:21 | IIHF suspended the players involved in match-fixing in Belarus

All the players involved in the match-fixing scandal in Belarus received a provisional suspension by IIHF as reported in a short note issued by International Federation:
"in accordance with IIHF Code of Conduct Rule 3.6, the IIHF has decided to provisionally suspend the players from all ice hockey competitions or activities authorized and/or organized by the IIHF or any IIHF Member National Association as of 2 July 2020.These cases will now be referred to the IIHF Disciplinary Board for further review and sanctioning."

The players, all from Dinamo Maladzyechna, are:
Goaltender Alexei Ivanov
Defenders Nikita Ustinenko, Sergei Sheleg and Alexander Syrei
Forwards Pavel Boyarchuk,Stanislav Kuchkin and Vyacheslav Lisichkin

02 Jul 2020, 16:12 | Slovak Extraliga should start on October 2

The beginning of the Tipsport Extraliga was tentatively set for October 2. The date should be finally confirmed for next Tuesday at the club meeting in Zvolen. The competition should have 12 participants but the position of Hungarian teams is still unknown
The regular season will have 50 rounds. The best six teams will advance to the playoffs automatically, the teams in 7th-10th place will play the preliminary round for participation in the elimination round. No team will be relegated and the winner of the 1 Liga will earn a direct promotion.

18 Jun 2020, 10:55 | Tomek Valtonen resigned as Poland coach

Finnish Tomek Valtonen resigned as Poland National Team as reported by Hokej.net portal.
"We have not reached agreement on organizational issues. Next season I will be working in a foreign club and I will not be able to visit Poland more often, which was what the Polish Ice Hockey Association expected from me" said Valtonen

15 Jun 2020, 19:13 | All 23 KHL clubs have applied for next season

KHL President Alexei Morozov said all 23 clubs have already submitted financial documents in accordance with the regulations. Now the league will analyze the financial documents sent by the clubs and will present its opinion to the KHL Board of Directors for the final approvation.

08 Jun 2020, 09:30 | Kriss Grundmanis suspended for doping

Latvian defender Kriss Grundmanis was disqualified for 4 years for being tested positive for a doping test carried out last December after a match of the championship of Latvia. The 31-year-old defense player revealed a forbidden substance in the blood - meldonium.
Grundmanis received a "mandatory temporary ban" on sports as of January 20, 2020 which has now grown into a four-year period, until January 19, 2024.
During his career, Grundmanis has played in North America, Czech Republic, Great Britain and Kazakhstan. He has spent the last three seasons in JLSS Zemgale. He represented Latvia in seven junior world championships

17 May 2020, 14:02 | Slovakia will add a new competition

To financially help the clubs and compensate the premature end of the season, the Slovak Federation announced the creatiion of a new trophy, called Super Cup, for the next season. The clubs finished in the first six places in the last season plus two more teams resulting from a qualification round involving eight clubs will enter in the competition

17 May 2020, 13:12 | Awards in Belarus assigned

The Belarusian Federation announced the awards for the 19-20 Extraliga, one of few leagues completed in Europe. The winners are determined by the votes of all Extraliga clubs

Best Goalie: Maxim Malyutin (Shakhtar Soligorsk)
Best Defender: Andrei Antonov (Yunost Minsk)
Best Forward: Nikita Remezov (Neman Grodno)
Best Young Player: Nasser Subkhi (HK Gomel)
Playoffs MVP: Maxim Malyutin (Shakhtar Soligorsk)
Coach of the Year: Yuri Faikov (Shakhtar Soligorsk)

12 May 2020, 11:02 | Hlinka Gretzky Cup cancelled

Hockey Canada announced the traditional junior tournament Hlinka Gretzky Cup, which was to be hosted next August 3-8 in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta, was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak

27 Apr 2020, 22:00 | Chinese clubs won’t compete in VHL anymore

According to Sport-Express portal, all the three Chinese clubs competing in VHL - Tseng Tau Jilin City, KRS Beijing and ORGZHI Beijing - won't compete in the next season. At the moment only ORGZHI, the Kunlun Red Star farm club, confirmed the withdrawal and rumours are it could move somewhere to Russia. No specific reason was cited, but the possible cause is the planned debut of the Chinese championship or the Covid-19 outbreak which has made travel between nations difficult.
Previously also the Uzbek club Humo Tashkent announced the withdrawal from the league

26 Apr 2020, 10:22 | Cergy promoted to LIgue Magnus

Cergy-Pontoise Jokers, the regular season champion of French Division 1, will play in Magnus Ligue in the next season, as determined by the Head Office of the Federation after reviewing the dossier presented by the club. In the same way HC Epinal is promoted to Division 1 from Division 2 and Reims and Poitiers will play in Division 2, coming from Division 3. Châlons asked to be relegated in Division 3

26 Mar 2020, 13:38 | Vladislav Nikiforov suspended for 15 months

Kazakh defender Vladislav Nikiforov, 19, was disqualified by the IIHF Disciplinary Council for 15 months - until February 8, 2021. In a doping test taken on November 8, 2019, when the Kazakhstan U20 national team played at the Baltic Challenge Cup in Tallinn, meldonium was found, which is included in the WADA list of prohibited substances.

In his explanation, the player indicated that meldonium was prescribed to him by a doctor last summer. He admitted that he did not inform the doctor that he was a hockey player. The athlete also said that he had no intention of using prohibited substances.

The International Hockey Federation found that the anti-doping rule violation was not committed intentionally. In addition, the young age of the hockey player and his lack of knowledge about doping were taken into account. The player declined the appeal and decided on the IIHF Disciplinary Board.

24 Mar 2020, 20:14 | Shakhtar to the finals in Belarus

No corona break in Belarus. Today Shakhtar Soligorsk beat Neman Grodno 1-0 to qualify for the finals against Yunost. The finals start on Friday.

22 Mar 2020, 19:00 | Greg Ireland is the new coach of team Italy

Following the resignation of Clayton Beddoes at the beginning of March, Italian Federation announced Greg Ireland as new coach of national team. Ireland, 54, from Orangeville, Ontario, currently the coach of HC Bolzano, start his work with the National team as soon as the emergency of the COVID 19 virus will pass. After the announcement of the IIHF of the cancellation of the World Top Division, the next commitment for team Italy is the Olympic qualifying tournament at the end of August in Riga, Latvia.

20 Mar 2020, 21:10 | Kazakhstan Cup moved from August to December

The Kazakhstan Cup, traditionally the opening season tournament, will be moved from August to December due to the Covid-19 emergency. Dates and venues will be determined later.

17 Mar 2020, 23:44 | KHL suspended playoffs until April 10

The KHL decided to suspend the playoffs after a recommendation by the authorities and taking into account the epidemiological situation. If restrictive measures are reduced or lifted after April 10, the league will be ready for the second stage of the championship. The format and dates will be announced later.

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